How To Brew A Porter Beer - A Style To Remember!

Brewing The Beer That Launched 1,000 Ships! Home Brewing A Porter

Get ready for a deep dive into the rich tradition of brewing porter beer! In this episode, we're brewing a classic porter, a recipe inspired by Eric's Plummer's Porter with some personal tweaks. If you’re a fan of dark, malty beers like stout but crave something lighter, this porter is for you. We walk through every step from grain selection (Golden Promise, Chocolate Malt, and Golden Naked Oats) to a perfect, low-carbonation kegging process.

Learn about:

Traditional Irish brewing techniques
Porter history, including Guinness’s porter before stout
UK-style hops like East Kent Goldings and Fuggle
Brewing tips for homebrewers, from mash temperatures to yeast selection
This is brew number 51 on our channel, and it's perfect for pairing with hearty dishes or even in recipes (yes, there’s cake involved!). Don't forget to check the recipe in the description and stay tuned for a taste test!

If you love brewing, traditional beers, or cooking with beer, hit that subscribe button and follow along!

Brew 51 Porter

30L Strike water @ 153ºF
1 campden tablet
6 mL lactic acid

3.5 Kg Golden promise 82.4%
250g Simpson DRC 5.9%
200g Chocolate malt 4.7%
200g golden naked oats 4.7%
100g black patent 2.4%

60 minute mash @ 152ºF
15 minute mash out @ 171ºF

Pre boil gravity 1.037
Pre boil volume 29L

25g EKG 6.1% Alpha 60 minutes
21g fuggles 5.6% Alpha 30 minutes
10g EKG 6.1% Alpha flameout
15 minute whirlpool before chill

Opening gravity 1.044

Chilled to 68ºF
pitched 1 pkg WLP 013 London Ale

Final gravity 1.014
3.8% ABV

Discount code to be used at checkout: GLENANDFRIENDSCOOKING

[Irishfan]

I like the sitting on crates discussing the brew. I know you talk about food, there just something nice about drinking on crates in the basement lol, maybe it reminds me of my college days.

[neilblythin]

I’d love to see you do a few ‘pub food’ episodes on the Glen & Friends channel. Your porter might make a nice variation on a ‘steak & Guinness’ pie.

[Stanley-bj]

Glen I love the intros you put in some of these videos so much, this one included!

[Murzington]

The dichotomy between the fact that "Glen took the expense to epoxy the floors and install the stainless sink and vent hood system" and that "he's still single pot brewing with the pot on a step stool and the pid system is sitting on a wooden crate" is so wacky to me. Love that the channel is back though!

[playingwithdata]

If you get one of the mini kegs you could approximate the two part pour by highly carbonating the mini and putting the rest in the larger keg at low carbonation pressure. It still won't be the same as a live cask with a sprinkler head and whatever else was going on but you'd likely be able to get the frothy head floating on flatter base.

[brunopinheiro]

Hi Glen,

Thanks for all the work you put into these videos, be it in this channel or in the other ones. I follow mainly your cooking channel, but I hope you realize that many people, me included, really like your method of presentation and your posture/personality. I love these longer (10+ min videos) in which you talk and do stuff.
It's always a pleasure because you know what you are talking about and we learn about things that otherwise would never know or search for ourselves.
Just gave a few likes in some videos to help the algorithm your way and hope this comment serves the same purpose.
You really deserve a better visualization spree.

And in the same spirit, see if you can salvage the footage you have. As I said, many of us really like to hear you talk, and definitely wouldn't mine some "lower production" videos. You can even mark them as such, and if you see they are hurting your visibility through the algorithm, put them private/take them down.


Thanks for everything you do here.

Best regards
Bruno

[VelkyAl]

I love that report from the BBC Archives, it is such a delight. On the porter front, I don't brew them anywhere near often enough for how much I enjoy a good pint of the stuff. My favourite porter is one that I designed for a local brewery here in Virginia, Three Notch'd Brewing in Charlottesville. I based it on several 19th century recipes for London Porter, looking for common themes in the grists and settling on 53% pale malt, 30% brown malt, 15% amber malt, and 2% black malt to give us an OG of 1.069. We used just Fuggles at 60 and 30 minutes to give us 32 and 15 IBU respectively, and fermented with Wyeast 1728 to 6.4%. We named it for the shipyards at which the workers that inspired the name "porter" plied their trade, Blackwall London Porter.

[kellybryson]

I don't like beer, but it is interesting to watch the explanations. I really want to make bread now.

[rogerwilco]

Glenn, this video sent me down a rabbit hole haha Thank You!!!

[radical_ans]

Lol all the reasons you dislike stout are the reasons I love it. To each their own! 😁

[subhumann]

porters and stouts just feel like autumn and winter.
I'm liking the channel!

[rogerwilco]

I would like to see you brew both a {high barrel and flat barrel) then mix it like in the BBC video. You take history and bring it to life, I am looking forward for more brew days.

[williamstewart]

I love coffee flavors in porter, but I also love coffee.

[Liquid_Bread_Fabrewcation]

I like your setup. Nice vent system. While my next brew won’t be porter. I do enjoy one once in a while. My next one is going to be a kettle sour. By the new year I’m going start doing some YouTube videos

[applegal]

I don't even like beer, but here i am watching a video of beer making! 😂 love the history of all food and drink, and the method of making things at home.

[lurker]

So glad to see you back in the brewery. Cheers

[notsonominal]

Oh, this was another channel? I wasnt subscribed but showed up in my feed; situation promptly remedied!

[absolutjackal]

It’s always so interesting how we like different things. I was actually just lamenting not a half hour ago that my local food hall was out of one of the few nitro stouts that I really like, which is specifically because it has strong coffee and chocolate notes. I settled on a brown ale that was so dark it was pretty close to a porter but I think the specific gravity was lower, it had a thinner mouthfeel.

[ArmandoDy]

Mmmmm!!! 🤤 now i want some Guinness. 🍻🍺🍻🍺🍻🍺🍻🍺🍻🍺

[erikstephens]

Hi Glen, Love a good Porter! If you ever wanted to try the two pour process I'm sure there would be a bunch of people that would come together to help you try it. Myself included!